Maybe you’ve never heard about “mañana” (a “Spanish word meaning tomorrow, often used to indicate an unspecified time in the future“), but more than likely, you have felt its power. Especially during the lazy days of summer, it is so easy to put things off.
When will you mow the lawn? Mañana!
When will you balance your checkbook? Mañana!
And when will you apply for that job? Mañana!
Somehow in the 1980s or thereabouts this word crept into US English perhaps referring to supposedly laid-back Latin cultures to the south of the United States where nothing needed to be done immediately and everything could be postponed until mañana. Essentially, mañana excuses a basic behavior in human beings also known as procrastination.
After all, we are all trained now to expect instant gratification. Press the button. Get the treat… (like a rat in an experiment). So, certainly, you can postpone your gratification and pursue it mañana.
But there will be consequences.
Remember Aesop’s story of the grasshopper and the ants, for example? In a nutshell, the grasshopper loved to fiddle and play music all summer long while the ants worked hard to gather food for the winter. When winter arrived, the grasshopper had no food stored up and the ants showed no compassion.
In other words, often gratification is not instant. It takes time. It requires work. For example, your career rarely offers instant gratification. It is also your single most valuable pre-retirement asset, and, guess what… it, too, requires that you invest in it—time, effort, even money. In fact, the investment in planning and progressing your career—especially in the summer—will most likely pay a handsome dividend.
You don’t believe me?
Here’s some evidence:
After all, most executives are not ready for the market when they come to us, despite what they might think. [Read more.]
- They may not be clear on which career path will lead to the most rewarding outcome.
- Often they have not properly packaged their experience to appeal to their probable next employer. [Read “Perfecting Your Packaging”.]
- The majority do not know how to find their target employer, particularly if they only focus on the published and recruiter markets and thereby completely miss the unpublished market where fully 75% of our clients land. [Read “Perceiving the Invisible Market for Executives”.]
- Many have little experience in interviewing and fail to present themselves optimally when the opportunity arrives. [Read “Congratulations, You Failed!”]
- And most have no idea how to negotiate the ideal compensation package—because it’s simply not something most executives do very often. [Read The Perils of Inadequate Preparation”.]
All of these career change processes take time. They are not subject to instant gratification. Postponing your career search simply puts you, the candidate, farther back in the queue and slows your chances of making that career leap you have been dreaming about during your delightfully indolent summer.
Our clients land so successfully because we help them focus on their objectives and take the steps required in a highly organized progression to achieve their goals. A team of six career-change professionals supports each client, keeping them motivated, so there is little time for mañana.
Here’s how one recently landed client described her motivation and outcome:
“I thought it would be a good time to look for a job, but the number of resumes I was competing with was huge! I’d see a job pop up and within two days it would have 1400 applicants,” said Victoria. “I got very frustrated. My resume wasn’t getting in front of anyone. I suspect I was also running into age bias, too. After three to four months, I realized that I needed to get smarter about my job search.”
[That’s when she hired The Barrett Group.]
“I can’t even express how much I love my new position! I love the flexibility to work from home. [And I] love that this company is on the cusp of tremendous growth. I love that the managing partner supports me and trusts me to make decisions,” said Victoria. “[Moreover I] really value the perspective The Barrett Group gave me about the job market and how to navigate the challenges. I don’t think anything could have been better about my experience.” [Read more about Victoria Sydorowicz.]
Even Forbes recognizes the great work we do, citing us again recently (for the fifth year in a row) as one of the best in the industry at helping executives to clarify their career objectives and discover the position of their choice.
Isn’t it time you left mañana in the rearview mirror and got serious about that career change?
There is no time like the present to get started on your future. Let us hear from you!
